Roche Drug Trial Witness Dennehy Says Actor’s Loss a ‘Tragedy’

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The early end of James Marshall’s
career, blamed by the actor and musician on Roche Holding AG’s
Accutane acne drug, was an “unbelievable tragedy,” former co-star Brian Dennehy said in court.

Dennehy, who testified yesterday in the New Jersey trial of
Marshall’s lawsuit against Roche, said 44-year-old Marshall was
headed toward stardom before inflammatory bowel disease linked
to the drug sidelined his career. Marshall played U.S. Marine
Louden Downey in the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men.”

“This is an unbelievable tragedy,” Dennehy said in an
interview outside the Atlantic City, New Jersey, courthouse.
“It amazes me that something like this could have happened and
could have had such a long-range effect on a career that should
have topped.”

About 16 million people have taken Accutane, once Roche’s
second-biggest-selling drug, since it went on the market in
1982, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers. Basel, Switzerland-based
Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, pulled its
brand-name version of Accutane off the market in 2009 after
juries awarded millions of dollars in damages to former users
over bowel-disease claims. Roche, which has lost all seven cases
that have gone to trial, contends it didn’t pull the drug for
safety reasons.

Marshall, a New Jersey native who now lives in Thousand
Oaks, California, is seeking at least $11 million in damages for
his Accutane-related injuries, including emergency surgery to
remove his colon. Jurors are hearing claims by Marshall and two
other ex-Accutane users that the drug destroyed their intestinal
systems.

More Celebrities

Marshall’s lawyers told jurors they would call other
Hollywood celebrities, including actor Martin Sheen and director
Rob Reiner, to testify that their colleague’s career was rising
until bowel ailments allegedly caused by Accutane left him
either unable to work or forced him to accept minor roles.

Roche contends Accutane’s link to inflammatory bowel
disease hasn’t been conclusively proven, according to court
filings. The company also argues it provided adequate warnings
about risks that some users might suffer bowel problems.

The company’s lawyers told jurors that Marshall’s “medical
records will show he had inflammatory bowel disease years before
ever taking Accutane,” Christopher Vancheri, a Roche spokesman,
said in an e-mailed statement.

The company isn’t expected to begin presenting its evidence
in the case for at least two weeks. Judge Carol Higbee is
presiding over the state-court trial.

‘Gladiator’ Role

Dennehy, 72, is a Tony-Award winning actor who has appeared
in more than 150 movies, including the 1977 pro football comedy
“Semi-Tough” and the 1983 Cold War thriller “Gorky Park.” He
is also known for his Broadway role of Willie Loman in “Death
of a Salesman.”

The white-haired Dennehy told jurors in Marshall’s case
that he met the actor in 1991 when they co-starred in a boxing
movie called “Gladiator.” The New Jersey native’s intensity
and “mysterious” looks set him apart from other young actors,
Dennehy said.

“He had a quality that it’s hard to define, this burning
inside. It comes from the eyes,” Dennehy said. “He had that,
just like Cuba Gooding Jr. has it.”

In the movie, Gooding and Marshall played boxers whose
fights were promoted by Dennehy. At the conclusion, Marshall
knocks out Dennehy during a boxing match. “I was the bad guy,”
Dennehy said. “I got my just desserts.”

‘Few Good Men’

Dennehy said he wasn’t surprised that Marshall landed a
lead role in “A Few Good Men.” The veteran actor said he
didn’t get a chance to see Marshall play a Marine private being
court-martialed for an incident in his barracks in Cuba until
several years after the movie was released.

“I don’t go to the movies very much or watch much
television,” he said, chuckling.

Dennehy said he didn’t stay in touch with Marshall over the
years and wasn’t aware of his medical problems until after the
actor sued Roche over Accutane. The two men hugged during a
break in the case when Marshall spotted Dennehy sitting in the
back of the courtroom.

Reiner, an award-winning director who picked Marshall for a
co-starring role in “A Few Good Men,” told jurors the actor
“was incredibly gifted.”

Marshall had “this incredible sexuality and magnetism,”
Reiner said in a videotaped deposition played for jurors
yesterday. “He jumps off the screen and it’s rare. I thought,
you know, here’s another James Dean. He blew me away.”

‘Limitless’ Prospects

Reiner, who has directed movies such as “Ghosts of
Mississippi” and “When Harry Met Sally,” said Marshall’s
career prospects were “limitless” after co-starring in “A Few
Good Men.”

“You have a young guy like that who has that kind of
sensuality, that kind of screen presence, and has that kind of
acting ability,” the director said. “You know he’s going to be
successful. You don’t know the level of success.”

Accutane is made by Roche unit Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. of
Nutley, New Jersey, allowing Marshall to bring his claim in the
state. The case’s two other plaintiffs, Gillian Gaghan and
Kelley Andrews, are also California residents.

Andrews, 29, is an account manager while Gaghan, 34, is a
nursing assistant. Marshall was born James Greenblatt, according
to court filings.

All three contend the drug left them struggling to deal
with their bodily waste, their lawyer, Michael Hook, said before
the trial, which is scheduled to last six weeks. Both Andrews
and Marshall battle incontinence while Gaghan has “developed
lupus-like symptoms” as a result of taking drugs to deal with
her Accutane-linked bowel disease, he said.

Litigation Record

The case combining the three ex-Accutane users’ claims is
the eighth to go to trial since juries began weighing
allegations against the drug. Juries in New Jersey and Florida
have ordered Roche to pay at least $45 million in damages.

Appeals courts have thrown out some of the verdicts,
including a 2007 award of $7 million to a Florida man who blamed
the drug for his bowel disease. Last year, an Atlantic City jury
ordered Roche to pay $25.1 million to a man who attributed his
bowel disease to Accutane. That case was a retrial of an earlier
verdict overturned by appellate judges.

In August, a New Jersey appellate court also overturned a
$10.5 million Accutane verdict against the company on an
evidentiary issue.

Roche has won dismissals of Accutane cases filed in federal
court that have been upheld on appeal and has challenged the
state court verdicts by asking judges to throw them out or
filing appeals, company officials said in a statement yesterday.